on my porch at the #Manor with La Catrina #sol17 Day 24/31

Most Manor apartments share front porch space. This past Christmas, my next door neighbor Ken and I decorated our respective areas. My green Halloween lights were still up. Ken went with red lights and wrapped the posts. I added Christmas decorations and lights to a tumbleweed. The barely visible garden gnome is a zombie.

Doña Catarina, pictured here, is in the dark corner in the picture above, also barely visible. I snagged a super skeleton discount just a few days before Halloween. Never too old to play with dolls, i got such kick out of dressing her up and sitting her on my porch and in different locations around the Manor that I decided not to put her away until next year. 

For New Years, she took off the Santa hat and carried a scythe; for Valentine's Day, a red robe with necklaces of roses and hearts. I'm watching the local thrift store for a girl's Easter bonnet and something with ruffles. 

None of these are La Calavera Catrina's traditonal attire, although her Dia de Muertos outfits and hat were. Read more here and here about her origins and who she is today. Although her emergence in Mexican popular culture dates to 1910 as the Mexican Revolution was picking up momentum, Catrina's lineage goes back to the ancient Aztec period and Mictecacihuatl, goddess of the underworld. 

Backtracking to October, here's a picture of Doña Catrina and I on the front porch -- upstaged by a skeleton, that's Life in the Manor. 


...and Catrina with my grandsons. Their mother Pilar reported back that the boys were very taken with her. Damian said he loved the way you dressed her up and the eyeball glasses too.

And a January view from my porch:

Since then. early spring winds -- fierce on the Great Plains -- took out spinner and spiral. I should wait for the worst of the wind and spring tornado season to pass before replacing them. Thinking about alternative porch decor, I have been looking at Chinese rice paper lanterns and a Princess Leia "A Woman's Place is in the Resistance" banner to hang. The snow is gone now and soon this view from my porch will be back -- but with tumbleweed, zombie garden gnome, blue pig and more

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2017 is the tenth year aka #sol17 of the Slice of Life Story Challenge  (SOLSC) hosted by Two Writing Teachers (TWT). Slicers write and post a "slice of life" story before the 11:59 ET deadline every day during the long month of March. The rest of the year, "slicers" write and post Tuesday slices. In between (and during) challenges, TWT regularly posts articles on writing and teaching.

PS During the month of March, a TWT slice icon is at the top of my blog sidebar but not always in the footer. As in life, I like variety in my slices. Today I am back with an "officlal" SOLSC badge -- Pantser for those of us who are not Planners but blog by the seat of their pants.